In the food service industry since the 1990s, Neill Reagan, owner of O’Neill’s Inflight Catering, began his catering career on the ground. It was a chance encounter when neighborhood friends in the Air Force Reserve gave him the idea of taking his culinary work to the sky.
“It's funny that you're doing catering and you don't know that there's another world, another niche out there of private jet catering and charter catering,” Reagan said.
Taking off in 2000 in San Antonio, Texas, O’Neill’s Inflight Catering has since expanded to Austin and Houston. They cover over 40 FBOS, cater around 40,000 aircraft a year and cater flights all the way to the south Texas border. Reagan said their Houston hub covers 400 square miles of airports alone and given the requests of the clientele, such as presidential candidates, O’Neill’s “basically caters the entire state.”
“The sports teams and presidents and prime ministers and kings and queens and CEOs and rock stars and movie stars,” Reagan listed. “We also cater to the military, so there's this whole world of catering in aircraft that I never knew existed.”
Inflight catering, Reagan described, is an entirely different beast than it’s on-the-ground counterpart.
“With traditional catering, you're going to get someone that calls you up. You're going to send them menus,” Reagan explained. “For inflight catering, there is no menu and you're like the Ritz-Carlton in the sky. Planes are coming in all day every day, 24-hours-a-day. You get asked for stuff in five minutes. You have people coming in that need halal, that need kosher. There's just so many different things that they ask for, so many different meal types and whatever they want, they get. Sometimes, it's DVD for a kid. It could be a dog leash or sports jerseys. You're more of a concierge than just a food caterer, too, because you are getting them whatever they need to get onto that aircraft.”
Managing an on-your-toes operation comes down to logistics. On the outside, managing both incoming and outgoing aircraft, then internally coordinating employees to make and take orders to aircraft. Expediting and time management is key – coordinating shoppers, chefs and delivery drives headed in eight different directions to aircraft across The Lone Star State.
“It's about all hands on deck, getting everyone understanding what their role is, whether you're a shopper, a delivery person, an expediter or a chef preparing the hot meals or someone putting together all the fruit and cheese and seafood trays, understanding what your job is, getting it done proficiently in time and getting that stuff expedited out and getting it on the road and getting it delivered. It is probably the most chaotic business, but it's exciting, too,” Reagan said.
Mike Linder, owner of Silver Lining Inflight Catering, attributes being able to adapt to the ASAP mentality as one of the factors behind Silver Lining’s 20 years of success serving all of South Florida.
“With inflight catering, we're dealing with a special passenger. Passengers that can have anything they want whenever they want it. We always say the ASAP mentality is, ‘these passengers want it when they want it and they want it now.’ So, we've got to figure out how to design our business around that. It's being able to react and provide more than just what your facility can handle. We're more of a concierge company,” said Linder.
Silver Lining’s two kitchens – one servicing Miami to Boca and the other servicing Palm Beach, Vero, Stuart and Orlando – covers almost 20 airports, over 35 FBOs and numerous charter companies. With clientele that are accustomed to having what they want, when they want it, Linder said that Silver Lining has had to, literally, bring five-star restaurant quality airside.
“You've got passengers who wine and dine at the finest restaurants. A lot of these restaurants don't do to-go food. So, passengers nowadays are looking to have that food on their aircraft. What we've done is we're able to provide that food by creating relationships with these restaurants, and we've brought in some top chefs to provide that food and that food quality in our kitchen,” Linder described. “If they want Nobu, we have an actual chef in our kitchen that has either worked at Nobu or can provide that quality of food and packaged properly. We now can kind of recreate these high end restaurants and this high end food. We always have been, but this is what we're pushing now is recreating what the passengers really want and what they want to see now.”
A Refined Palate
In Las Vegas, Nevada, Jean-Pierre Giron, co-owner and executive chef of Art Of Cooking LLC (AOC), brings high-end, event quality food to the sky. Giron founded AOC with his wife, Anne, in 2008 and launched the inflight catering branch of AOC five years ago, but had worked earlier in his culinary career for an inflight catering company. He said that he has noticed a new trend in what is being requested.
“We are really seeing a push for quality compared to years ago where it was more, like, snack and sandwiches and stuff like that. We see a clientele who ask for higher quality. They want to see what they find in the fancy restaurants. They want to be able to experience that in a plane,” Giron explained. “I remember about 12 years ago, it was more cold food, like sandwiches, some un-peppered stew, a cheese tray. A lot of stuff that was more like a snack than a real meal. Now you see more going to the high end, where they really want a full-plated dinner in the plane – more elaborate with a nice presentation.”
Linder, too, has noticed the same trend and said part of it can be attributed to an increasingly younger flyer.
“I think 20 years ago people were ordering fine wines and caviar and wanted that white glove service. Now the kids are taking over the businesses and it was almost like a 20 year trend. We have a younger passenger that's flying. A passenger that's got more tabs in their head. Instead of one track people that were focused on business, now you've got people that are focused on everything and they have so many tabs in their head that they're able to think quicker, they want quicker, they're moving faster. Maybe more of an entrepreneurial feel that gives them that opportunity to say, ‘This is what I want. I want it now. How do I get it?’ And then they figure out how to get it,” elaborated Linder.
It's a trend that has forced caterers to evolve quickly and keep up with the times, adopting technology and embracing the rise of the internet, learning to compete with apps offering to-your-door service with little off limits. It’s an evolution that’s been benecificail, Reagan said.
“I remember, when I started this in the 2000s, the phone would be ringing every 15, 30, 45 minutes. You’re getting calls all through the night and then you're running to the kitchen to get all these things out,” Reagan recalled. “Technology definitely helps. Now, all these things are coming through the internet, and so you can manage businesses on phones. You can keep an eye on multiple locations. I think technology has been a great advancement to help our industry, especially as you expand into multiple locations, not having to be woken up by a phone call every few minutes to take, to write down in order. The internet is a great thing.”
Filling Your Plate
When on the fly, a client can find picking the right caterer for them just as much of a challenge as picking what’s for dinner. In fact, there’s more that goes into making sure a caterer is the right fit for a passenger than simply what they’re in the mood for. Communication is key.
“I like to know who's on the plane. Is it men? Is it women? Are they 90? Are they kids? Are there dogs? And where are they going? Is it two couples going to Napa Valley? Is it two guys going to the Superbowl? Is it two women going to New York shopping? What time of the day are they flying? Because all that really helps in creating that catering order,” Linder said. “And then how long of a flight is it, right? We like to learn about each flight and where they're flying to, who are they flying, what's the agenda of the flight? Is it a 40th birthday party and they're going to the islands and it's a party? Then that's a whole different ballgame than if it's four guys going to sign a deal in New York.”
Giron echoed Linder’s stress on communication, adding that if possible, try to find a caterer that’s transparent and allows kitchen visits.
“Be sure that we're going to be able to provide the best quality and the best service. Try to do your research first, try to see if your caterer is open for visits,” said Giron.
Making sure a caterer is properly licensed and following FDA guidelines should be, as Reagan points out, at the forefront of a client’s mind when shopping around.
“Some of these airports are hours away, and if you're just throwing it in the backseat of a car, if you didn't cool it down properly, if it's not temped into the proper regulations provided by the FDA and transported properly, then foodborne illnesses can happen, and the last thing you need is pilots getting sick. They can't pull over because they don't feel well,” Reagan said. “We have logs all over our kitchens of temping food, temping them during the transport, making sure that everything is being delivered within those guidelines that keep our customers safe. And the traceability of the food – you can't have your uncle just go out there and make some brisket in his backyard then serve that to an aircraft. There has to be traceability of where that food is coming from, so they know that it's legal and safe food that's being delivered to these aircraft.”
